Global Education City & Jeju International School & No Excuse

I was reading about the proposed "Jeju International School" over at the website they have for the Global Education City Project.

If you are at least semi-conscious, you have heard about the grand plan to make Jeju a "Hub" of English education.

A quick rundown on the plan taken from ther Project brochure:

Purpose: Raising national competitiveness by absorbing demand for overseas study/training and improving command of the English language.

Project Period: 2008 - 2015

Location: Daejeong-eup, Seogwipo

Major facilities: 12 international schools (1 public/11 private), English Education Center, public facilities, cultural facilities, etc.

Scale of the City: 5,875 households (23,000 people)

Total Project Costs: 1,7800 TRILLION Won

The plan is indeed ambitious. Some, including myself, may even say too ambitious. However, it is my hope that it all comes off without a hitch and Jeju achieves its desired status as a sort of "Mecca" of English education.

But, I have my doubts.

A project like this requires attention to detail. As they say, the devil is in the details. In addition, the requirement to be able to communicate effectively, in English, with foreign (western) school representatives is critical. That is why my reading of the first public advertisement of the project, its website, worries me.

On the home page of the website you can read the "flashing" motto:

Providing Quility education second to none

How many English mistakes can you find in the above motto for the "Jeju International School?"

Then we can move on to the introduction page with a message from Mr Yang Seong-Eon the "Superintendent of the Jeju Special Self-Governing Provincial Office of Education."

On this "Introducation" page you can read Mr Yang's "Greetiongs."

If you want further information you can consult the brochure about "Jeju Internationl School.

In the brochure you can learn how multinational(?) students, as well as, other characteristics will combine to make the "Internation School" a success.

I won't even go into the willy-nilly inserting of an Upper Case (capital) letters. It must be a case of "The rules regarding such be damned."

I could go on but I think my point has been made. In my opinion the website having such idiotic mistakes is embarrassing not only to the organization itself, but also to Jeju.

When I went to the page that listed the "Task Force Members" and saw who was repsonsible for the English translations for the project, I nearly fell out of my chair. The name I saw would be VERY familiar to every EPIK teacher on the island. If you don't recognize the Korean name, look at the e-mail address and that should clue you in. I won't name the person here - although I AM tempted.

For something as important as this project, why in the hell can't certain people swallow their pride and let an educated, conscientious NATIVE SPEAKER review all the English language materials before putting them on the 'net.

There is absolutely NO EXCUSE for idiotic mistakes in English to be on the Global Education Project/Jeju International School website when the office responsible for the English has access to well over 150 native speakers!

NO EXCUSE.

(PS: I wonder if I get extra points for using the words "Hub" and "Mecca" in the same post about Jeju?)

That's Our Story And We're Sticking To It, Dammit!

Yep, stick to the story........

'Inoculated children ill from flu, not from vaccination'

... and back in the 1960's they swore there were no adverse health effects from smoking. Yep, same stuff different day (or year, decade, century, millenium, whatever).

The Picture NASA Doesn't Want You To See

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

I was reading about the visa waiver program between Korea and China. No big news there. But the last paragraph of the story did make me laugh:

However, Korea and China need to clear some obstacles. The two nations should take measures to prevent travelers from becoming illegally staying workers. South Korea is now suffering from the problem of undocumented workers from other countries. Therefore, policymakers should make thorough preparations to set up a better screening system to avoid the influx of Chinese migrant workers in the guise of tourists

It made me laugh because:

However, the data also showed dark side of Koreans abroad. About 320,000 were illegal residents in foreign countries in 2007, with 235,000 staying in the U.S. At the same time, Japan and the Philippines also marked a high number of illegal Korean residents. Considering these people do not identify themselves out of fear of deportation, the actual number is expected to be much higher, Lim said.

Most of them visit the respective countries with short-term visas then work at restaurants, entertainment facilities and small factories run by fellow Koreans without work permits or long-term visas.

Which came first, the illegal Chinese "worker" or the illegal Korean "resident?" Hmmmmm.

I wonder if "Mr. Kim" will be opening a "Balli Balli Korean Immigration and Worker Placement Service (cough, cough)" in Shanghai anytime soon.

Korean Model Kills Herself - I Wonder

Some Korean model named "Daul Kim" killed herself in Paris. I saw the article but didn't pay too much attention. That is, until I read the last paragraph:

Kim's blog (iliketoforkmyself.blogspot.com) was last updated on Wednesday, with a YouTube video of the song "I Go Deep" by Jim Rivers.

OK, the girl off'd herself. It's always sad when someone takes their own life. But I couldn't help wonder about the significance of the blog name and the last song chosen. Is that info true or is it someones idea of a sick joke? Hmmmmm.

(Update: I checked out her blog and the last entry. It's as reported. But then I looked at an entry dated 11/08/09 where she states "I'm going to be a good wife," and then 10 days later she kills herself. I say again, hmmmmmmmm.)

Anyone Know Anything About Jeju National University's Korean Language Program?

A friend (Yes, I do have a friend, No, I really do. Really. No, I'm not kidding you.) asked me if I knew anything about the Korean language program out at Jeju National University.

I told him that I didn't have a clue, which is true. I haven't heard anything, good or bad, about the program. My friend wanted to know about the teachers, books used, etc. The usual stuff that you can't find in a brochure.

Does anyone have any experience with the Korean language learning program out at Jeju National University? If so, could you send in a comment so I can pass it along to my buddy.

Any opinions I receive will not be posted in the comments section (or anywhere else), so feel free to be honest about the good and the bad.

Thanks.

F-5 Visa on Jeju or "They Just Don't Get It"

In the KT this morning I read where for the measly price of $500,000, and 5 years of your life, you can get an F-5 Permanent Resident visa on Jeju. Or, at least that is the latest grand plan from the higher ups on Jeju.

I was tempted to go into a long list of why this whole thing is stupid, but decided it wasn't worth my time. I'll just chalk this dumb idea up to "They just don't get it."

I really wish the planners on this friggin rock would get a reality check.

A Breakthrough! or LOJ, Go F*ck Yourself!

We all have them. The students who do nothing more than think your English class is a time to sleep, draw or otherwise zone out. Today was no different. This morning I was giving a class on flags and, specifically, the Korean flag and what it means (no jokes here, please).

During the class I showed a PPT of a map of Korea. An older, politically incorrect, map of Korea to be exact. Well, the map has the profane expresssion "Sea of Japan" on it. I never thought too much about it because, quite honestly, I don't give a hoot in hell about Korean hyperventilation and self-inflicted blood letting over the issue of Sea of Japan vs. East Sea.

Well, it took about 0.25 nanoseconds for a student to point out that my map was "wrong." Knowing what was coming I asked "Why?" The student, who had now been joined by a gang of others, started yelling Sea of Japan NOOOOOO! East Sea!!!! I decided WTF, why not have a little fun, so I said "East Sea No, Sea of Japan is correct." All of a sudden it was like a bag of methamphetamine exploded over the class. Everyone, and I mean everyone - even the sleepers and future starving artisits, started having a go at me.

We started going back and forth. Any time a student started shouting at me in Korean, I would tell them that I don't understand and they should speak (shout) in English. This seemed to motivate the crap out of them. Students who have been relatively silent the entire year started shouting at me in pretty good English. Most students, even if they didn't understand, would ask others to translate and then come up with some English to shout at me. It was great.

My co-teacher in the back was a little slow, though. She thought I was actually arguing about the issue. She couldn't understand what I was doing or that the mayhem had an actual purpose. At one point she even signalled me to stop it. She looked worried that an all-out gang fight, 40 on 1, was about to begin. The chants, "We must beat LOJ into a bloody pulp to correct his misunderstanding!" were sure to begin at any moment.

My co-teacher seemed to be getting increasingly nervous until the brightest student in the class (who was laughing the entire time), a STUDENT for Christ's sake, went over to the co-teacher and told her what I was doing. Then the lights went on so to speak and she started smiling and nodding.

This went on for about 25 minutes. All(!) the students in the class were ripping through dictionaries, asking for help from other students and quickly practicing comments with each other before trying to tell me in English to go fuck myself. I loved it. I think I'm on to something here. Heh, heh, heh.

Next week I think I'll show a map that lists the Liancourt Rocks as TAKESHIMA and show the following on a slide:


It should be fun. But at some point, I'll probably end up like the poor teacher below:


Heh, heh, heh.